Unspoken
by bookwormsquill
Summary: "What was it again?" He looked down smiling, and their foreheads were a centimeter from touching. "Merlin, you're always giving me a headache, Hermione." He could breath in her apple shampoo. Like the way it was, just the way he liked it. She could feel it at the back of her mind. But what did keep him from helping her unravel? Post-Hogwarts D/Hr
1. The Astronomy Tower

"You've been here a lot, huh Granger?" He finally broke the silence. He had been standing there for quite sometimes. Like all the times he had done before. But this time he let his curiosity got the best of him. She had been going up there for a while and he had been following her from the first time, unknowingly.  
It was the first time they had a conversation since she couldn't remember when. It felt quite unsettling and exceptionally awkward for her. For him. For the both of them, really. They just had not come to that.

"You've, certainly, have been paying attention to me a lot huh Malfoy?" She continued when he didn't answer, "What have you done to me?" She stared at him suspiciously.

"What exactly are you implying, Granger?" He inquired, not sure of what she was talking about.

"Oh, don't play dumb with me, I know you know what I mean,"

"Well, I know you are wrong, so do explain."

"You did something to me. Something that make me feel a tad-" She paused to let out the proper word. There was too much thing about him that had been going on her mind for a rather long time. Since the last time she spoke to him to be exact. "-remorseful," She finally decided, "-which, only Merlin knew what for."

He was truly startled. He was sure that he had been doing everything correctly, perfectly, almost. It had not been the first time he performed that charms. He had done this several times and everything turned out as what he had expected to. There was no way, something had gone wrong by then. Yet there she was, proving the exact opposite. But then again, she was resisting and his mind was everywhere. Maybe what they say about reluctance was proven in accordance with fact after all. He kept his facade expression and altered his gaze to the dusky sky behind her. She thought she could make out something out of him but it was gone too soon. She couldn't be so sure.

"I do nothing," He replied nonchalantly. She looked at him incredulously then decided that it was a mindless idea to sound off her thought.

"What are you doing here anyway, Granger?" He stepped forward and she could see those haunting silver-stone eyes. She backed away.

"None of your business,"

"Something important?"

"No, I was only- whatever, I was just going away." She moved towards the stairs and walked past him. Before she could go any further he grabbed her left arm and turned around to face her." Let go of me, Malfoy." She tried to act as calmly as she could manage.

"It's not, the first time you went up here in the middle of the night. You are clearly up to something." He demanded sternly.

"How do you know that it's not the first time I went up here in the middle of the night? How do you even know how I got here the first place?"

"I'm asking first. You answer my question, I'll, answer yours."

"I was just thinking, okay."

He drew her closer to get a better look on her. He wrapped one of his hand around his waist and skidded downward to reach her back pocket. She thought he was going to grope her, and she swatted his hand, intuitively, too bad his other hand was faster than both of hers and caught her before she could pry his hand off of her.

"What are you doing?! Stop it, you little pervert!" She shouted hysterically at his face as she strived to wriggle free.  
His palm proceeded to slide inside of the pocket and flattened as though he wanted to find something. The action had her squeaked.

"Malfoy! Stop it! Get away from me, right this instance!"

In a mere seconds the feels of his hand on her bum was gone. She felt relief to know that Malfoy wasn't really groping her and rueful for her accusation towards him. His grip on her hands changed its position to her waist, holding her as close and fixed. There was her cutter in front of her face. Not directed towards her, in front of her.

"And how exactly is this to help you thinking, Granger?" He examined her beautiful brown orbs that he had yearned for in a painfully long time. Their faces were so close and he thought he could almost inhale her. Like the old time. He'd die to have her smile directed to him again.

"H.. How did you know it was there, Malfoy?" She stammered for the burning intensity of his eyes.

"I was asking first." He held down the cutter and threw it aside. Neither he or she knew where it was but he thought it was better off that way. He shifted a little and both of his forearms were fixed on her waist. The position was somehow relaxing and surprisingly familiar for her.

"Yes, but it's my turn to ask." She said with a warm tone that happened to come out involuntarily. It felt as if she was talking to an old friend.

"I just happen to-"

"No, stop don't answer that."

"Why?"

"I was going to ask about something else."

"Alright then, go on."

"How do you know that it's not the first time I went up here? How do you even know how I got here the first place? Have you been following me, Malfoy?"

"One question at a time, Granger. Which one do you want me to answer?"

"Oh okay, the first one." She was speaking with a friendly tone by then and he had to restrain himself from jumping with joy.

"What was it again?" He looked down smiling (not smirking), and their foreheads were a centimeter from touching. "Merlin, you're always giving me a headache, Hermione." He could breath in her apple shampoo. Like the way it was, just the way he liked it.

"Are you smiling, Malfoy?" She asked with a teasing smile, completely unaware of his using of her first name.

"Is that your question, Granger?" Grinning, he teased back. He hadn't felt this kind of feelings forever and he just wanted to go with it. Not even trying to restrain his happiness.

"Maybe it is, Malfoy." She grinned back.

"Well, as the matter of fact I did, Granger. Simple question, right? Very unlike you."

"It was, wasn't it. Give me another shot?"

"Sure." He just couldn't say no.

"How did you know there was something in my back pocket? I almost thought you were trying to grope me, Malfoy, what a relief of knowing that you weren't."

"Always, the same old prude Granger." He teased again.

"I am not a prude." She defended herself.

"Really?" He asked with a mischievous eyes as he lowered one of his forearms.

"Stop! Fine! Maybe a little." She interjected her face were redden. He only chuckled. He always found it adorable when she did so.

"Are you answering or not?"

"Yes, of course."He hadn't stopped chuckling.

"Well?"

"I saw a protuberance on the back of your pocket. I was just curious, I guess." He was thinking hard. "What were you doing with it, Granger?"

"I " The horrible feelings rushing back to her mind. Her facial expression was changed drastically, and it didn't go unnoticed by him.  
"Granger?"

"I should go." She said as she twisted herself off of him.

"Wait." He got a hold of her left wrist and she winced in pain. He followed her eyes that landed on her wrist that he was currently holding. He lowered his grip to her forearms and noticed cuts. Deep cuts. Before he could register anything further she was gone. Great. He couldn't believe he messed it up, again.

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**Author's Note : Thank You for reading! I hope that was okay. What do you think of Draco and Hermione? Too out of their characters? Please review, I need it for improvement :) **


	2. The Black Lake

She wasn't there.

Just like he thought. Draco cursed himself for being too incredibly nosy. Now that he had pushed her way too hard, she was never going to want to talk or see him to begin with.

He was sure that his mere presence had her unsettled in the beginning. But those last minutes had felt like a heavenly dream. Unpredictable, unbelievable, unexplainable.

Draco had wondered to himself how in Merlin's name did Hermione's expressions seem to change the moment they had a proper eye contact. The moment he had held her so close like the way he had done before everything, all the bad things had happened.

But then again, he couldn't deny the fact that the action confirmed his prior theory. It just that, it had feel so unreal.

_I hate you._

Those haunting words rushed back through his mind. Those three words and eight letters had not come out the way that he had wanted to. He never felt more devastation in his entire imperfect little life.

It was the worst kind of pain he knew. He always felt sick every time he thought about it or when those words came back to his head. That was the main reason why he didn't even bother to talk or approach her, if anything he'd be avoiding her. It just had been too painful.

That night, the night when he stumbled upon his private thinking place to find her stood up near the edge. It seemed like she was contemplating something, her expression was rather troubled. It had been quite a temptation for him. Watching her beautiful features without her knowing.

It absolutely did him no good. His mind had always been telling him to leave the place immediately, but his feet just refused to obey. He stayed there, watching her every move, and racing down to the bottom of the tower when she made any indication of getting back.

Apparently, yesterday was unlike any other night. She crouched down and seemed like she was fiddling something with her hand. So he spoke deliberately, and her every responds, questions, and statement turned out to be a surprise for him.

Alas, Draco wasn't really sure what to do. The only thing that he had been sure of was he lived when she decided to be close to him.

After last night, there could be a chance for them without revealing the past. There was positively something scratching at the back of her mind, there was no way she would have relaxed in the arm of Draco Malfoy, the prat extraordinare if there had been nothing.

It could be a good thing. After all, she didn't say those three dreadful word even if she did leave. Everything seemed to be quite positive except for ... The cuts.

Those cuts surely couldn't be good news. He just had to wait the perfect time to talk to her about it and beat the crap whatever the cause was. When the time came.

As a prefect, in the middle of patrolling duty or not, Draco should have stopped Ronald Weasley and some girl from Hufflepuff, whose name Draco didn't know, in the middle of their snogging. But he merely walked past them and eyed them with disgust and amusement.

He was walking back to the dungeon when he heard voice of something emerging from the water that made him turned around to see the girl with a bushy chestnut hair.

Hermione, that got to be her, he thought. He strode down slowly to the Black Lake and stopped when he was about two meters away from her.

"There it goes." He said, hoping to strike up some conversation with her as he watched the Giant Squid disappeared to the water.

To his bad luck, she didn't reply. He cleared his throat a little bit too loudly to catch some of her attention. She didn't budge.

"You weren't at The Astronomy Tower."

"Stating the obvious." She finally replied without glancing back at him. "What are you doing here, Malfoy?"

Draco let out a sigh of relief. That wasn't the friendly answer he had hoped for but at least she was still talking to him and it was good enough for him.

"May I sit here?" He nodded towards the spot next to her when she turned her head at him.

"I asked first."

"We're still at that, Granger?" He joked.

Hermione focused her eyes back to the rather darkish lake in front of her then nod silently.

Draco wasn't completely sure whether she nodded for his question or joke, but he sat down beside her anyway.

"I see you talk very little,"

"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" She asked again, with rather visible irritated expression. "I'm asking rather nicely here, so you might as well give me a straight answer, or I leave right now."

That was the last thing he wanted, obviously. "I was walking from the Astronomy Tower when I heard something, then I just-"

"I mean not here _here,_ I mean, _here_, where I am."

"Is there any difference?" He asked, confused.

"Of course there is, I mean here is here, where I am, where I was."

"Like The Astronomy Tower as well?

"Yes, it almost feels you've been following around."

Yes, indeed I have, Hermione. He didn't really know what to say nonetheless. "Um, it does?" He mumbled.

"Yes." She answered straightaway then continued, "You're driving me crazy." Her voice rose suddenly.

Before Draco could decide how he felt about her statement, she continued, "You're already inhabiting my mind more than enough without your showing up constantly." She immediately covered her mouth with both of her hands. Draco couldn't help but smirk.

Hermione shot up and was ready to storm of again when Draco's hand reached out to grab her hand and to stop her from leaving. "I think that's more of a good thing."

Her face grew redder and she looked away.

Draco pulled her hand down so she was sitting down again. She sighed and looked down. "It's not a good thing, okay? It's not even healthy."

"Oh it is healthy, Granger. Keeping me in your pretty little head," He paused to gave her a superior smirk, "is definitely normal."

"How's that normal, Malfoy?"

"Trust me, Granger. Every girl does it too. It isn't really a bad thing at all." He gave her a winning smile.

"Oh I'm sorry let me rephrase that, how's thinking about a random person who had done absolutely nothing nice to you even in the past normal, Malfoy?

It stung. The random part was already hurt, and the rest was so much worse. "I'm sorry." The smirk was gone.

"I'm over it, Malfoy. Long time ago. I mean it." She gave him an earnest look.

For a second, he almost didn't believe in the word she just said. But the look in her eyes told him that she feigned nothing.

Bless that forgiving angel. He had tormented her for about half the time of their knowing each other. And here she was telling him that she had let it all past.

"I shouldn't have done those horrible things to you."

"Exactly!" Her voice rose once again, and just a second later she was shouting.

"You shouldn't have done those horrible things to me. And yet you did. And what scary is that's not even the bad thing. I couldn't bring myself to hate you like I did before!. I don't know how the hell have those hatred gone just like that. I barely even see you, and here I am everyday, thinking about you, feeling sorry as hell like I'm the one who had done the vile things."

She was in tears by then. She just looked so heartbreakingly beautiful when she cried. Things turned out to be more serious than he had thought.

"Come here," Draco said and wrapped his arms around her as she gave in and buried her face on his chest.

"Please help me." She whispered quietly in between the heavy sobs.

"What can I do?" He said as he drew comforting circles with his finger on her back.

She pulled away a little, their heads were very closed but she didn't seem to mind it. "Were you planting some memories on me or something, Malfoy?"

The intensity between them made his heart beat ten times faster. "Erm...no." He answered truthfully. Well, technically.

"Whatever it is, just stop it. Don't you know that it's gotten much worse after last night?'

"What's gotten worse?" He asked. He hated it when bad things happened to her.

"The nightmares, the bad plaguing thoughts, the guilt, the anxiety!" She shouted and stood up on her feet.

Draco once again managed to grab her wrist. "Please," he pleaded. He had never known that the flaw of his charm could cause such damaging repercussion to her.

"No." She said sternly. "Do you really want to know the cause of this cuts? You seemed rather curious yesterday."

_Please don't._

"It's because of you."

His eyes widen in utter horror as his grip on her loosened involuntarily and she took the chance to yank her hand and run away.

He got a feeling that she did it for good.

All those times he tried to figure out the reason that made her suffer from such pain. He felt his soul sucked out of him slowly by he registered the fact that he was the answer. Everything was ruined and there was no other option than to give back what was hers.

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**Author's Note : That was the second chapter :) The next one will be on Hermione's POV. Thank you for reading and please give a review. What you think is what keep me going.**


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